White pastors hurt their ministries by not taking risks and supporting integration

When white ministers advocated racial prejudice in the pulpit, they underestimated church members with talents to help the church transition to an integrated society. Hardin could back the <cite>Brown</cite> decision without losing his church because an influential member supported him.

Citing this Excerpt

Oral History Interview with Paul Hardin Jr., December 8, 1989. Interview C-0071. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Full Text of the Excerpt

DONALD MATHEWS:

What do you think were some of the lost opportunities which white
ministers ignored over a period of time?

BISHOP PAUL HARDIN:

I think that the biggest mistake most of them made was that they ignored
or did not realize the loyalty, deep down, of their members to the
church and to Jesus Christ. I think that they underrated,
underestimated, what they could count on. I remember when the decision
was made about integrating the schools. I called the brightest laymen I
had in my church in Birmingham. Multi-millionaire, he'd made it himself
in the insurance business, although he never got to be president.
Somebody else owned the business, and he did what he did, Phi
Beta Kappa from the University of Alabama and all
that. Most efficient chairman of the board I've ever had in my life. He
never had any communication or did anything about the church that a copy
of it didn't cross my desk from his desk. Well, when this decision was
made about integrating the schools, I called him over the phone, and I
said, "Ehney, I need to talk to you." Ehney Camp,
University of Alabama, Phi Beta Kappa. I said, "I need to talk
to you." Well, he said, "It's fortunate that you
called me. I'm without my car. How about coming by and taking me home,
and we'll sit in the car and talk." What we talked about was
what had just been happening in court. And I said, "Now, Ehney,
this could mean a rough time. I've got to tell you my position, and I
want you to know that I'm going to back this decision of the court
because I think it's right. And I'm going to call on you and every good
man that we've got in the church to be loyal to the Methodist Church and
to the courts of our land." He said, "You can count on
me." And that was a great start right there because he had
tremendous influence. I think a lot of people missed an opportunity to
call in key people. Oh well, I think about

DONALD MATHEWS:

But that's important though. I forget right off hand the name of the man
but he was a Baptist preacher from Lynchburg who taught at Yale while I
was there. And he was saying that white ministers who have already made
clear their position on race relations were in a far better position to
take a stand for integration after the Supreme Court decision than other
people were. He said you had to have established your credibility
beforehand.